I left her that night with a kiss on the cheek, and made her promise to call me if she needed me. It was a pretty perfect day, and it started with the best morning I’d had in a long time.
“You seem very distracted these days.”
Eden sat across from me, her nails tapping the top of my desk, and her gaze locked on me as she tried to get inside my head. You couldn’t put anything past her. She was like a bloodhound sniffing out everything that shouldn’t be found. I met up with her and Ky for breakfast, and she followed me into my office with the excuse that she needed to run something by me for the upcoming cover she was shooting.
“Work’s busy at the moment.”
“This is different from work busy.”
“You have different rankings for how busy I am?” I laughed before lifting my coffee to my mouth and sipping on my fresh brew.
A smirk flittered over her lips, and I knew then that she was about to start the interrogation. “Of course I have different Josh rankings. There is work busy, women busy, family busy, gym busy—I know a lot about you, Josh Crawford.”
Fuck, she was hilarious. “If I didn’t love you, I’d think you were a nutter.”
She scoffed before raising a brow and incredulously asking, “So, who is she?”
The sip of coffee I had just taken came flying back up my throat, and I coughed in discomfort as Eden’s prying question hit me. Was I really so obvious that Eden had seen a change in me? Ashlyn and I were . . . what were we? My intentions did not involve being friends with benefits. She wasn’t random pussy that I’d have when I needed relief, and she wasn’t a distraction. She deserved more than that. She was everything I wanted, and I’d spend the rest of my life making her see that.
“I knew it,” she stated with glee and clapped her hands excitedly. My silence was obviously the only answer she needed. “Is it Jessica from accounts?”
Shit, here we go. “What? No!”
Her brow pulled, and I was sure her mind was sorting through all of the women working for Anderson Publications. This interrogation was going to be horrendous, but I knew she wouldn’t stop.
“Sophie from Marketing? I’ve seen the way you two flirt. I’m surprised someone hasn’t walked in on you two going at it in the supply room.”
Little did Eden know that Sophie and I already had a night together a few months ago when we were on location for a cover shoot. This, however, was information Eden didn’t need.
“I’ve never been in the supply room with anyone that doesn’t mean something to me, Eden.” The thought of the supply room sent an unstoppable smirk to my lips as memories of pulling Ashlyn in there hit me.
Her eyes shot wide, and I swear she was on the brink of hyperventilating. “So there is someone! You wouldn’t say that if there wasn’t. This is going to kill me. Just tell me and I’ll leave you alone.”
Like hell she would.
A soft knock came from my closed office door and I silently thanked whoever it was for interrupting Eden’s interrogation. Slowly, the door opened and Ashlyn stepped through.
“Ash, just the girl I need. You will be able to help me,” Eden’s excited voice announced as she rushed across my office, grabbed Ashlyn’s hands, and dragged her in.
Fuck no! No way was this conversation happening.
“What are you two talking about?” Ashlyn asked with an amused laugh.
“I’m trying to work out who Josh is sleeping with. I’ve decided that he is woman busy, but he won’t tell me a thing. It’s not Jessica from accounts and, even though he flirts like crazy with Sophie from Marketing, he says it’s not her. Do you know? You two have been spending a lot of time together lately, so I thought you might know?”
This could not be happening. I had to have stepped into an alternative world, because there was no way my brother’s fiancé was telling the woman I was trying to make mine, and who had been sharing her body with me, about the other women I was supposedly fucking. Ashlyn’s eyes flashed immediately to mine as if trying to work out what to say, while Eden looked on eagerly.
“Oh wait, it has to be Leah in advertising. She is brunette, skinny, has big boobs, and is breathing. Totally your type.” Eden smirked, and held her hand up for Ashlyn to high five, which she slowly did.
Fuck my life. Where was a shotgun to put me out my misery?
She had completely lost her mind. Although with the past I had, it wasn’t that far from what would have been truth. But not anymore. The familiar ring tone of Eden’s phone sounded, and by the smile that crossed her face, I knew it was Ky.
With a moment of reprieve, I chanced a glance to Ashlyn, who I found staring back at me. Moving toward her, I knew my intentions, and I was going to make them clear.
“I’m not fucking anyone,” I whispered, dropping my mouth to her ear, and not caring where I was or about the potential of being heard by Eden. The strongest urge to drown whatever was swimming through her pretty head hit me full force.
“You mean you aren’t fucking anyone besides me?”
“That whole conversation, w—”
“You’ve never had to explain yourself before, so you don’t have to explain yourself now. I’ve been around those kinds of conversations plenty of times, and I’m sure this won’t be the last.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked forcefully.
She shook her head, but I couldn’t ignore the hesitation that crossed her green eyes. She didn’t believe a single word she was saying, so why try forcing that bullshit on me. She didn’t want to be a part of that conversation as much as I didn’t want to experience it again.
“What are you kidding about?” Eden piped up, and it was only then that I remembered we had company.
“I just asked if it was Lauren,” Ashlyn said with a convincing laugh.
“Oh my god, Ky would rip your balls off if you went anywhere near Lauren. He is almost as protective of Lauren as he is you, Ash. Okay, that’s going a bit far. I’d say Ky was about fifty percent as protective of Lauren as he is of you, and that’s saying something. I fear for the next guy you date, Ash. Ky is going to be like an overprotective father, big brother, and crazy uncle all in one.”
“Ky needs to learn that Ashlyn can do whatever the fuck she wants,” I shot out before I could stop myself. Two sets of eyes fell to me—Eden’s wide with wonderment, and Ashlyn’s wide with shock. Eden’s phone dinged in her hand, and her eyes fell from mine to her phone.
“Ease up, Tarzan. Just go along with it and stop beating your chest so obviously,” Ashlyn whispered beside me.
That nickname would be the death of me.
“I’ve been summoned by my lovely fiancé, so I’ll talk to you both soon. Ash, I’ll see you for wine time on Friday. And Josh, I will get to the bottom of this. I know there is someone.”
“I’ll keep working on him. I think I saw a hot blond in here the other day,” Ashlyn admitted with a smirk. “See you on Friday, babe.”
The moment the door closed behind Eden, I swung around to Ashlyn. Her shoulders slouched as she took a deep breath, and she moved to the large window that looked out over the city. I rubbed my temples as a tension headache appeared, and tried to figure out what I could say to correct what had just happened.
I crossed the room until I was standing behind her. In the reflection of the glass, her eyes met mine and she offered me a brief smile. My arms threaded around her waist and my hands clasped together, resting on her stomach.
“I’m not kissing anyone, I’m not touching anyone, and I’m certainly not fucking anyone.”
Our gazes remained locked, and I was desperate for her to believe the sincerity of my words. The hesitation of her actions and the confusion that I witnessed repeatedly weren’t lost on me, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. My reputation wasn’t favorable, and that was something I had to live with, but having it put on display like that was the worst thing that could have happened. Ashlyn had a front-row seat to the life I led, the one of the cliché bachelor, and now here I was trying to make her see that my back was turned to that lifestyle. Now was the time for me to fix her broken and shattered heart and show her what true love had the capacity to be. I was fighting a life-changing battle. One thing I refused, though, was to be put in the same column as Lachlan.